HP printhead (K550) weird output

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Hi folks.

This is a slightly odd one that you may have come across if you're an HP printer user but only if you have an HP like the 1100 or the K550 where the printheads are a seperate unit from the cartridges.

The symptoms for my problem are that the printer is putting a black band (which varies) across the yellow output and I've also noticed a reasonable amount of speckling black output as well that covers the page.

I'm guessing the printhead has been damaged rather than just blocked output because the actual black output that should be happening seems to be fine...

Any ideas?

 

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Ok folks... having spent what I'd hoped would be a good few months with the K550 I've discovered that they're anything but good... It seems there's a defect in the Black & yellow printhead that results in the black failing quite spectacularly... I'd been putting the problems down to CIS's, ink pressure or even the ink itself but it seems that there's a flawed design in these beauties and I'm now in the process of phoning HP to request not just one but 4 replacement printheads.

Given that the same printhead is used by the K5400 and L7000 series of printer and MFD I'm more than a little worried that we're headed for problems there too...

I'll keep you posted but this certainly doesn't look "good"... :|

 

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Right... just to follow up on this... Having spoken to tech support it seems the K550 is the only one affected by this problem. Since it was produced they've improved the printhead design... well that's what I've been told and I'm taking with a pinch of salt.. I can however state that the L7680 I have here and the L7780 I have in one of my schools are both working fine so it may well be true.

 

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Websnail,... You seem to know a lot about HP printers so I hope you don't mind me asking. HP has a lot of ALL-In-One printers that seems to have great features and performance. It looks like some of their Protosmart models even have seperate ink tanks for colors. They have the Photosmart series C6100 which have Auto Doc feed units and use the "02" ink carts. The C71xx series does not have the ADF feature. Then there is the Officejet models 7130xi, 7210xi, 7310xi, 7410xi, which all use the HP 94/95 ink carts with built in printheads.

I know these printheads can all be refilled, but do they need some kind of resetting like the Epson chipped carts? Is there software to reset them like the SSC service utility? Are these printers as good as the Canon printers or Epson printers. Are they as easy to maintain.

I know this is asking alot, but since I have been so lucky fixing the Canon printers, I have started looking at the HP and Epson printers to see if It is worth the time to refurbish those. What is your opinion.

 

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Websnail,... You seem to know a lot about HP printers so I hope you don't mind me asking.

Heya... unfortunately I have to stop you there... I only know enough to be dangerous when it comes to a specific set of HP printers so I don't have the answers you seek.. There are a few other bods on here who will likely have the answers you seek though..